Georgia

[afone]

The $36.2 million project resumed last spring, incorporating a new process that uses water to adequately cool fresh concrete while it cures and should address the problem. The bridge is 50 percent complete with an expected finish date of March 2017.
The Price-Legg Bridge, which carries about 5,850 vehicles a day across the Little River into Evans on Georgia Highway 47, is now considered only "functionally obsolete,"  and the state began a $24.1 million effort in November to replace the overpass by Aug. 21, 2016, Collins said.
It is 18 percent complete, online records show.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/latest-news/2015-02-24/decade-old-projects-fix-bridges-moving-forward?v=1424832280

[afone]

The Georgia House today approved the transportation bill....

Legislation aimed at raising nearly $900 million a year for transportation improvements in Georgia cleared a major hurdle Thursday when it passed the state House of Representatives.
The House voted 123-45 to pass the bill and send it on to the Georgia Senate after lawmakers rejected an amendment proposed by two key Republican leaders that would have reduced its revenue impact to about $500 million.
"I believe the need is there to get to $1 billion," said House Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Roberts, R-Ocilla, in urging his legislative colleagues to reject the amendment offered by Majority Leader Larry O'Neal, R-Bonaire, and Majority Whip Matt Ramsey, R-Peachtree City. "If we pass that amendment, we'll be reaching about half our goal."

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/capitol_vision/2015/03/georgia-house-passes-comprehensive-transportation.html

[Tom958]

The Georgia House today approved the transportation bill....

Legislation aimed at raising nearly $900 million a year for transportation improvements in Georgia cleared a major hurdle Thursday when it passed the state House of Representatives.
The House voted 123-45 to pass the bill and send it on to the Georgia Senate after lawmakers rejected an amendment proposed by two key Republican leaders that would have reduced its revenue impact to about $500 million.
"I believe the need is there to get to $1 billion," said House Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Roberts, R-Ocilla, in urging his legislative colleagues to reject the amendment offered by Majority Leader Larry O'Neal, R-Bonaire, and Majority Whip Matt Ramsey, R-Peachtree City. "If we pass that amendment, we'll be reaching about half our goal."

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/capitol_vision/2015/03/georgia-house-passes-comprehensive-transportation.html

I must be missing something-- except for the gratuitous hippie-bashing of the electric vehicles stuff, this seems like it might be defensible public policy out of the Georgia legislature. Will wonders never cease?

[afone]

The new I-85/Poplar road interchange project is inching closer to reality....

The interchange on Interstate 85 at Poplar Road continues to edge closer to reality. The Coweta County Commission on March 3 approved a state-required request to have traffic signals in the new intersection where construction is expected to begin in early-mid 2016.
County Administrator Michael Fouts said plans for the Poplar Road Interchange include traffic signals at the northbound and southbound ramps on Poplar Road.
"These signals would be owned and maintained by the Georgia Department of Transportation but Coweta County would be responsible for the ongoing monthly costs of power and communication service for these signals once they are completed under the project and accepted by GDOT,"  Fouts said in a Feb. 24 letter.
The monthly cost of operating the lights is expected to be $50-60, said Fouts.
The state requirement to request that the traffic signals be installed is a next step in the process that will lead to the construction of the I-85 interchange at Poplar Road.
The long-anticipated interchange continues to move closer the reality. Fouts said right-of-way acquisition for the project is expected to be completed in late 2015 with construction expected to begin in early or mid-2016.
The project is expected to be completed with the interchange open during the 2017-2018 time frame.

http://thecitizen.com/government-county/new-coweta-i-85-exit-moving-ahead

[SSF]

GDOT's contractor has put up the advanced warning signs for the new Union Grove Road interchange in Calhoun.
The signs were still covered up Sunday afternoon but "Un" was visible

[afone]

Looks like TSPLOST may make a comeback...

Legislation approved by the Senate Transportation Committee Wednesday would give local elected officials in the regions where voters rejected the TSPLOST in 2012 until January 2017 to schedule a new referendum on a 1-cent sales tax increase to pay for transportation projects inside those regions. The tax would be collected over 10 years.
In regions that don't take the state up on that option, smaller groups of counties would be free to band together to offer voters a sales hike of up to a penny that would run for five years. The 2012 TSPLOSTs did not offer such a fractional sales tax increase.

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/capitol_vision/2015/03/georgia-senate-looking-to-revisit-tsplost.html

[Gnutella]

Whoever assembled the big green signs for the Peter Street/Olympic Drive interchange in Athens fucked up a good number of them. All highway shields are too small, and some are even missing. There's no distance indication to the next exit on a couple of signs. I'll have to take some pictures when I can.

[afone]

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/house-senate-pennies-apart-on-transportation-deal/nkjNp/

[Henry]

http://www.ajc.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/house-senate-pennies-apart-on-transportation-deal/nkjNp/

All I can say is, ouch!

[afone]

A deal has been been reached and Gov. Deal will sign the bill....
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/capitol_vision/2015/04/gov-deal-to-sign-transportation-funding-bill.html?page=2

[Henry]

A deal has been been reached and Gov. Deal will sign the bill....
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/capitol_vision/2015/04/gov-deal-to-sign-transportation-funding-bill.html?page=2

Talk about dodging a bullet there.

[afone]

High mast lighting will be added to I-75 between Pierce Avenue and Arkwright Road
http://www.macon.com/2015/04/16/3697527/input-sought-on-i-75-lighting.html

[afone]

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WJCL) – The Georgia Department of Transportation is more than half way done with the Jimmy Deloach Connector project.

Neighbors say this is a long time coming. Neighbors say they see standstill traffic every weekday.

GDOT is trying to alleviate those frustrations. Officials said the project will help put a lot of the truck traffic on Highway 21 onto Jimmy Deloach.

"It's frustrating for everybody in the area,"  said neighbor Tony Stephens.

He drives on Highway 21 just about every day. He said it's frustrating to constantly sit in bumper-to-bumper traffic during rush hour.

"The road rage is getting kinda bad,"  said Stephens. "My commute from President Street to Rincon could be from 45 minutes to an hour and a half."

GDOT said once the Jimmy Deloach project is finished, traffic should be minimal.

"It's a way to get the truck traffic from I-95 to the ports in a safer manner for not only truck traffic but commuter traffic,"  said Jill Nagel, with GDOT.

The project will connect Jimmy Deloach and extend it to State Route 307.

It's about 66 percent complete.

"If you've ever been on 21 during rush hour, the trucks are trying to get on 307 off 21, so this will alleviate a lot of that congestion,"  said Nagel.

Officials said the project will be complete summer of 2016.

http://wjcl.com/2015/05/03/gdot-more-than-half-way-done-on-jimmy-deloach-project/

[Gnutella]

Here in Athens, it appears that they're building a new bridge(s?) for College Station Road over the Oconee River. If you're heading toward the University of Georgia, the work site is off to the right, which means that the curve on the west bank of the river might not be as tight when it's all said and done.

[afone]

Hall County approved their 2040 long range transportation plan....

Top elected officials gave their final approval of a long-range, $1.77 billion transportation plan for the Hall County area Tuesday.

The Gainesville-Hall Regional Transportation Plan update covers projects that will be done in three time frames: 2015-23, 2024-32 and 2033-40.

Key short-term projects include widening Spout Springs Road in South Hall, building the Sardis Road Connector in Northwest Hall and construction of a new Interstate 985 exit between Oakwood and Flowery Branch.

http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/section/6/article/109681/

[afguy]

GDOT is spending a $100 million bond on replacing obsolete bridges across the state..
http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/blog/capitol_vision/2015/05/georgia-transportation-bond-money-going-to-bridge.html

[Gnutella]

I wasn't able to get any pictures, but when I went to Cumming the other day, I noticed that construction on GA 20 is progressing very rapidly near the eastern end of the zone in Sugar Hill. They now have concrete curbs poured and dirt flattened where the future eastbound lanes are going. The existing alignment in Sugar Hill is where the westbound lanes will go.

As you go west toward Suwanee Dam Road, the existing alignment switches sides to the eastbound side, and they appear to be in the process of grading the land where the future westbound lanes will go. The new bridge over the Chattahoochee River is coming along too, with girders for the eastbound side already in place. The new bridge appears to be higher, with a bit of an arch to it.

In Forsyth County, they appear to have most of the right of way cleared. They have a lot less work to do than Gwinnett County, though. They only have to widen about three miles of highway, versus six miles for Gwinnett County.

Anyway, to catch people up on projects in Athens, I have some pictures of the completed Peter Street/Olympic Drive interchange on the Athens Perimeter that I took about a month and a half ago, as well as some pictures of the new bridge construction on College Station Road that I took about two weeks ago...

The completed interchange at the "outer" exit ramp looks proper.


Major errors on the "inner" Perimeter signage: What's the distance to the Oconee Street/Lexington Road interchange? And why is the U.S. 78 shield so tiny?


For that matter, why are all the route shields on these newly-installed signs at the "outer" on-ramp so tiny? And why not include a "TO GA 72 East" trailblazer on the left sign so it can read "Elberton" instead of "To Elberton"?


The deceleration lane for the "inner" off-ramp is very long, and there appear to be two signs for the Oconee Street/Lexington Road interchange with tiny route shields and no distance indicated.


Here's an overall view of the construction site for the new College Station Road bridge.


As you can see, one of the bridge piers is already built, and I'm guessing that the rebar is for the top of the second pier.


A closer look at the completed pier shows that the top is terraced, which means that the sharp curve at the other end of the bridge will be alleviated by extending the curve onto the bridge itself.

[Tom958]

Definitely some screwy signage. I wonder if the drawings showed it like that...

I also notice that they don't follow Georgia's usual practice of making all the sign panels the same height. I wish they'd done that as policy when they made the other recent changes.

[xcellntbuy]

Lots of small shields on the BGS.

[Eth]

Part of the effect comes from Georgia's unusually large destination text, but...yeah, those are small. Looks like they may have used 24" shields (should be 36").

[Gnutella]

I hope that the signage errors are on the people who fabricated them, because if the errors were present on the blueprints, then it's really bad that nobody noticed. Another thing I noticed on the U.S. 29 North sign is that "NORTH" is not properly kerned. It seems to be a bit off center, and the spacing between the letters isn't consistent.

As for the size of signage on a gantry, I'm not sure what popular opinion is, but I honestly don't care if they're different sizes. If anything, assembling a huge sign for a line or two of text just so it matches the size of an adjacent sign seems like a waste of resources to me.

[afguy]

I was over at GDOT's website looking at the plans for the reconstruction of the John C Calhoun Expressway and the construction of the new concrete median wall along Riverwatch Parkway. I must say I'm glad GDOT is beginning to consider aesthetics when it comes to their projects now. Both project will feature lights similar to the installed along Broad Street. Also heavy landscaping and a new overhead sign directing people to downtown and nearby neighborhoods will be placed along the John Calhoun Expwy. Here are some renderings of those plans:
New overhead sign for John Calhoun Expwy
johncalhounexpwysign-page-001 by brandon walker, on Flickr

New lighting for John Calhoun
johncalhounexpwylights-page-001 by brandon walker, on Flickr

The median wall for the John Calhoun will be repainted and a decorative fence installed along the top of it
johncalhounexpwylights2-page-001 by brandon walker, on Flickr

New lighting for Riverwatch Parkway between I-20 and Jones Street
riverwatchparkway-page-001 by brandon walker, on Flickr

[afguy]

Here are plans I also found for GDOT's reconstruction of the U.S.27/280/GA 520 and Custer Road interchange at Fort Benning. The new interchange will give people access to Cusseta Road as well.
custerroadinterchange-page-001 by brandon walker, on Flickr

The new signage GDOT will install for this project
custerroadinterchangesigns-page-001 by brandon walker, on Flickr

custerroadinterchangesigns3-page-001 by brandon walker, on Flickr

[Gnutella]

I don't understand why GDOT insists on listing their state highways before U.S. highways. The proper order on that "Fort Benning | Columbus" blueprint should be "U.S. 27 | GA 1" under NORTH, and "U.S. 280 | GA 520" under WEST.

[lordsutch]

In general, I think GDOT should discontinue the practice of cosigning redundant state highways, as every other state with concurrent routes has done. Getting rid of the thousands of redundant signs alone would save a bundle over the long term.

The only concurrent routes I'd keep would be 400 and 520 (and maybe 540 if it ever is signed).